$1.2bn for Iraqi police training missing....

[Che Guava]

...but no worries, there's no 'intentional fraud, just good old fashioned in competence..... /sigh

US-Iraqi contract 'in disarray'

A $1.2bn (£590m) contract for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors do not know how the money was spent, the US state department says.

The programme was run by a private US company, DynCorp. It insists there has been no intentional fraud.

Auditors have stopped trying to audit the programme because all the documents are in disarray and the government is trying to retrieve some of the money.

Training Iraqis to take over security is a key part of US strategy.

Correspondents say this case is the latest to highlight problems linked to private companies being awarded lucrative government contracts in Iraq.

Olympic pool and VIP trailers

The US government audit, due to be released in Washington, says the state department cannot say "specifically what it received" for most of the money paid to DynCorp, the largest single contractor to the department.

DynCorp had won a contract to provide housing, food, weapons and specialist training for Iraq's police force in February 2004.

But some of its spending included the acquisition of a $1.8m X-ray scanner that was never used, and the $4m purchase of 20 VIP trailers and an Olympic-size swimming pool with money intended to fund an Iraqi police compound.

Stuart Bowen Jr, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), blamed the problems on long-standing contract administration problems within the state department office that awarded the contract.

He said "lack of controls" and "serious contract management issues" within the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) made it "vulnerable to waste and fraud".

Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said it could take the state department up to five years to review invoices and demand repayment from DynCorp for unjustified expenses.

"This scenario is far too frequent across the federal government," he said.

DynCorp had been asked to improve its management of government-owned equipment in Iraq twice before.

link

I can only assume they built the olympic swimming pool to fill with money so that DyCorp executives could swim in it like Scrooge McDuck. Seriously though, where do they find these corporations, and why are they trusted with so much money without (seemingly) any control?

And maybe in somewhat related news...

Bush asks Congress for war funds

US President George W Bush has asked Congress for an extra $46bn (£23bn) to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and finance other national security needs.

It brings the overall amount of war funds the president requested for the next budget year to nearly $200bn.

I wonder who's pool gets to be filled this time....

 

[El_Machinae]

I think that everyone would be much better off if we drew and quartered the execs at the upper levels of these types of mismanagements.

I don't think that taxpayers deserve to get screwed over by people who collect a 6 figure salary and then get a golden parachute when all the money's gone.

 

[mrt144]

is arthur anderson doing their auditing?

 

[Patroklos]

I can only assume they built the olympic swimming pool

I don't consider that waste, any US military gym has a pool included in their fitness facilities, I would expect any real police adademy type training center to have rubust physical training infrastucture.

Leave it to the media to focus on the wrong . .. .. .. .. Like there isn't enough meat here without making crap up.

 

[mrt144]

I don't consider that waste, any US military gym has a pool included in their fitness facilities, I would expect any real police adademy type training center to have rubust physical training infrastucture.

Leave it to the media to focus on the wrong . .. .. .. .. Like there isn't enough meat here without making crap up.

I give you, neo colbert.

 

[Patroklos]

I'm serious, 1.2 billion missing is maddening, why do news reports feel the need to exaggerate when they have enough of the real thing to get a headline?

Is there really any objection to the Iraqi police training center having a pool? If it were at DynCorp HQ with a playboy style grotto and swim up bar sure, be outraged. What exactly is a VIP trailer, and how is that an abuse? The article specifically states these things were bought "with money intended to fund an Iraqi police compound," how is this not the case?

 

[mrt144]

There is really an objection to the police training center having a pool. IF you were starting a police force wouldnt you put swimming pool, not only with the sunk cost of construction but also the variable costs of upkeep somewhere lower on the list of things that a training center needs? you're really telling me that you think a swimming pool supercedes any better alternative?

I wouldnt even want my police department to have a swimming pool built for their own, private use. especially if the crime rate was really high.

Also, what is this swimming pool supposed to do? help iraqi police learn how to swim? increase moral?

 

[RedRalph]

Lads, there loads of curruption the world over, arent you going to haul che over the coals for focussing on this?

 

[mrt144]

Lads, there loads of curruption the world over, arent you going to haul che over the coals for focussing on this?

i'm not necessarily paying directly from my tax paying pocket for the corruption of the rest of the world.

 

[brennan]

Hmm. if that said 'UN-Iraqi contract' there'd be a million people on here moaning about corruption.

 

[Patroklos]

There is really an objection to the police training center having a pool. IF you were starting a police force wouldnt you put swimming pool, not only with the sunk cost of construction but also the variable costs of upkeep somewhere lower on the list of things that a training center needs?

A lot of needs have to be met, not everything can be met as a matter of acquisition reality. If I have a list of things to build, but the materials of the priority projects won't be here for a month, but this less important thing is ready to be built now, you build the less important thing. When I was on a ship sometimes the SPY-1D radar broke, the most important thing on the ship besides the engine, and the parts wouldn't be available for two weeks. Does that mean I didn't continue procuring Diet Coke for the vending machines in the meantime?

There are a thousand reasons why that compounds construction went the way it did, if of all the monstrous abuses this article claims happened the best the author can do is site a pool fulfilling a legitimate, if maybe not priority, need is all he can come up with he should be fired.

I wouldn’t even want my police department to have a swimming pool built for their own, private use. especially if the crime rate was really high...Also, what is this swimming pool supposed to do? help iraqi police learn how to swim? increase moral?

An Olympic size swimming pool is a lap pool MRT, for physical fitness. Do you not see that as something you would want your own police force, let alone one embroiled in a guerrilla war, to be concerned with? Hate to tell you this MRT, but unless you live in the boonies your police have a gym, if you live in a major city they have a pool (or at least share one with the general city employee gym).

Newsflash. Every sizable US facility in Iraq/Afghanistan has fitness areas too.

 

[Masquerouge]

Is it time to link that thread where people defended the pay of American CEOs as being in line with their "responsibilities"?

 

[Patroklos]

Obviously the US military and federal law enforcement agencies should fill in the pools at all their facilities. I sure don't use the one near me every weekend for laps, no sir. In fact, lets bulldoze all the gyms while we are at it to. Physical fitness for those in jobs requiring physical fitness, what a waste!

 

[El_Machinae]

Is it time to link that thread where people defended the pay of American CEOs as being in line with their "responsibilities"?

Drag them over hot coals.
I don't mind people getting the big bucks, but I despise them being given big bucks to piss away vital resources. Worse, being paid to sequester and divert vital resources

 

[mrt144]

A lot of needs have to be met, not everything can be met as a matter of acquisition reality. If I have a list of things to build, but the materials of the priority projects won't be here for a month, but this less important thing is ready to be built now, you build the less important thing. When I was on a ship sometimes the SPY-1D radar broke, the most important thing on the ship besides the engine, and the parts wouldn't be available for two weeks. Does that mean I didn't continue procuring Diet Coke for the vending machines in the meantime?

There are a thousand reasons why that compounds construction went the way it did, if of all the monstrous abuses this article claims happened the best the author can do is site a pool fulfilling a legitimate, if maybe not priority, need is all he can come up with he should be fired.



An Olympic size swimming pool is a lap pool MRT, for physical fitness. Do you not see that as something you would want your own police force, let alone one embroiled in a guerrilla war, to be concerned with? Hate to tell you this MRT, but unless you live in the boonies your police have a gym, if you live in a major city they have a pool (or at least share one with the general city employee gym).

Newsflash. Every sizable US facility in Iraq/Afghanistan has fitness areas too.

Obviously the US military and federal law enforcement agencies should fill in the pools at all their facilities. I sure don't use the one near me every weekend for laps, no sir. In fact, lets bulldoze all the gyms while we are at it to. Physical fitness for those in jobs requiring physical fitness, what a waste!

your first argument is a strawman. vending machines of diet coke are not chosen at the exlusion of fixing the radar. it isnt as if the government says "we either fix the radar or have cokes on the ships". this situation is one of "is there a better way to spend 1.2 billion dollars on a police department that is still its infancy?" I mean really, you have to be pulling my leg that a lap swimming pool was the best allocation of funds for the state that the police department is in.

also, a swimming pool on it's own merits for physical fitness can be debated. what % of iraqi police can actually swim? is swimming the best method of physical fitness for the cost? Is there a fitness activity that can help with their police activities that is cheaper?

as to your last argument, you are making an absurd reduction of the argument.

I usually expect better from you. Not only are you defending something for no apparent reason other than to play devil's advocate, you're also putting for fallacious, silly arguments.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I'd rather have a pool.

 

[Patroklos]

your first argument is a strawman. vending machines of diet coke are not chosen at the exlusion of fixing the radar. it isnt as if the government says "we either fix the radar or have cokes on the ships".

Actually, you comment is the strawman, as the article on no way says funds were spent on the pool instead of something else. But hey, instead of the 33,600 cans of Diet Coke I had VERTREPed (imagine what that transport cost was...) the USN could have bought us 100 cases of .50 ammo to make us that much more prepared. Or not let us have any of the 201,600 cans of soda we went through and bought a Humvee for the Marines!!!

What is the cost of a swimming pool out of 1.2 billion dollars (actually out of more than that, because the money for the pool is accounted for)?

The base I work on just wasted money on spouse abuse awarness day signs when there is a war on! We could have bought one more M-16 with that money!

I mean really, you have to be pulling my leg that a lap swimming pool was the best allocation of funds for the state that the police department is in.

For a police training facility. The contract was for training police, not general infrustructure.

also, a swimming pool on it's own merits for physical fitness can be debated. what % of iraqi police can actually swim? is swimming the best method of physical fitness for the cost? Is there a fitness activity that can help with their police activities that is cheaper?

You obviously aren't a swimmer. In any case, in a country that is made up of a lot of desert, and has 0% humitidy and temperatures hitting 110 regularly a pool seems like a very good option for cardio training (used for stuff like running after insurgents while carring equipment). Pools are not as expensive as you think, price out a full weight gym and get back to me.

I usually expect better from you. Not only are you defending something for no apparent reason other than to play devil's advocate, you're also putting for fallacious, silly arguments.

You giving a stupid article author a by because you think if you don't it detracts from the incompetance of not being able to account for 1.2 billion, which you think I don't agree is horrible mismanagment is silly.

There is nothing wrong with a pool. And there is definetly nothing wrong with the trailors unless they are being used to house an onsite brothel or the like. Those examples of "waste" were stupid and added nothing to the story.

 

[mrt144]

you obviously can't separate the idea that coke machines vs. radar repair is far different than swimming pool vs. anything but swimming pool that achieves the same purpose of a swimming pool for cheaper. keep running with your false analogy.

swimming pool vs. indoor track with fans = two things that are similar but differ in costs
radar vs. coke machines = two things completely unrelated to one another in budget allocation.

and I love the idea that training in real world conditions like the desert is worse than training in a pool.

 

[Patroklos]

you obviously can't separate the idea that coke machines vs. radar repair is far different than swimming pool vs. anything but swimming pool that achieves the same purpose of a swimming pool for cheaper. keep running with your false analogy.

swimming pool vs. indoor track with fans = two things that are similar but differ in costs
radar vs. coke machines = two things completely unrelated to one another in budget allocation.

and I love the idea that training in real world conditions like the desert is worse than training in a pool.

You can't seem to accept that just because there are higher priority requirements it does not mean that lower priority requirements are not still procured, no matter what the price difference is. Take a look at your credit card statment if you don't believe me

Your being argumentative for no reason, you know damn well there is nothing wrong with the olympic size pool (the name alone gives away its intended use), you just don't want to admit your knee jerk acceptance of anything in the article/rebuttal of anyone challenging anything in the article was not thought out.

We agree with the actual point of the article, the examples were just stupid. Nothing you make up will change that.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

The company "...had been asked to improve its management of government-owned equipment in Iraq twice before"...

I say we apply a [wiki]Three strikes law[/wiki]. With the amount of money they've been "losing", I think a death penalty might be in order here, if it ever was.